New Van Halen Covers By Local Guitarists, Plus Lots Of Assorted Updates!!

(Updated at 3:11 PM) Before we begin this post, I wanted to apologize for a missed concert, as Munising, Michigan metal quartet Infathom (featuring former Half A Man singer Dillon Semasky) apparently played at Pickles Bar & Grill in Brimley on March 12th, marking their first E.U.P. concert appearance since 2014. I profusely apologize for missing it, Pickles is still not a common venue for our coverage, but hopefully it was a blast, and we will keep a better eye out for Infathom's next trips east! Now, today's post features some assorted recent updates, and first, some Van Halen cover videos from two local guitarists, starting with two instrumental renditions by 415E guitarist Chris Hubbard, as posted to his YouTube channel yesterday! Including covers of "Panama" and (as embedded below) "Jump", both feature Chris handling guitar, bass, and drums on multiple camera angles.

These covers are very strongly done by this huge local talent, who has proven his Van Halen fandom is not in vain time & time again, but the overhead camera angle is not a great view for when he plays guitar. Still, give Chris' solid new Van Halen covers a look above & below!



Next up, here's the first cover video from former Ashes To Dust guitarist Alex Hemy's YouTube channel in over a year, and fittingly, it's also of a Van Halen cover (in this case, "Panama" as well!) Playing along to what sounds like the original track minus the original guitar, Alex has a good grasp on the song, but the camera angles are a little odd. Still, it's nice to see a new performance video from Alex at last, so give it a look below!



Finally for today, here's six more assorted shorter news items from the last while, and as usual, these are in alphabetical order by artist name:

• In their first public posting of the year, reunited Sault Michigan acoustic hard rock band The Creepy Little Coffee People revealed on their Facebook page yesterday that they made a guest appearance during an open mic night at The Merchant's Bar this past Thursday. This isn't their first live performance in such an event since reuniting, but it's the first to get public word that I've found. Hopefully we hear more from The C.L.C.P. soon!
• Sault Ontario alternative hard rock trio The Din played a set at the Fishbowl Festival's closing party last night at Outspoken Brewing on Queen Street, and photos from their set are available on their Facebook page! The closing party was a private event for volunteers and participants of the month-long festival, hence why we didn't plug it here (or know about The Din's involvement beforehand), but hopefully it was a blast, especially at the unique venue, and hopefully The Fishbowl Festival returns for 2017!
• Local alt-hard rock duo Infinity Grinder re-emerged for the first time this year via a bunch of new instrumental song postings on their SoundCloud page in the past month, including an extended track named "Quong" and a 9-track "Green Room Session" featuring Terrence and Brad jamming new originals alongside guest keyboardist "Rudeger Picklefeather" (which I presume is an alias, but I don't know his real identity.) The songs are strong and entertaining, but vocals would be a nice touch. Hopefully we hear much more from Infinity Grinder soon!
• The planned LemmaFest V meeting yesterday was cancelled for unannounced reasons, and will be rescheduled, as per the official Facebook page earlier today. Despite that, there is already visible interest to perform at the returning Sault Michigan festival from bands like Munising's Infathom, a possible Scofflaw reunion, and a local metal band named Stoned Ape Evolution, who have been together since 2014, wear masks on stage, and feature local musicians John Napoletano and Melvin Willis in their lineup, but don't have a known online page that I've found. The anticipation builds, so stay tuned for more LemmaFest 2016 updates!
• Former Bear Hunters guitarist Mike Vincent is looking to put together another new local metal band, preferably a death metal band with him on drums (as you've seen with Faceityoureametalband and Troubled Mind), though he's open to playing guitar if the band plays "an amazing genre". If you're interested in jamming with Mike, message him at this link or via his Musicians Wanted Facebook group post from yesterday!
• Apologies for the delay in mentioning these, but four new episodes of the 7L arts/music podcast have went up on their Soundcloud page in the past month! None are fully devoted to metal, hard rock, or punk topics, but host Teddy Syrette talks to friend Emily Youngsen about dreams, Cafe Natura owner Kelly Barton, local musician/writer Jeff Hinich, and a few local rappers in each. Musical performances by The Din (credited as "fill in blank") and Pillory frontman Robert Sartini (who actually fits nicely in an acoustic setting) are also included in the first two. All are fun listens, so check them out above, and stay tuned for more from 7L!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for our extended preview of Wednesday's VM Radio Battle of the Bands finals TOMORROW! Thanks everyone!